Like many other college students, Laura Dickinson looked forward to getting through finals week and her first semester at Eastern Michigan University so she could enjoy the holiday season with her family.

But what set the 22-year-old apart was the tragic and terrifying way she was attacked and killed inside her dorm room in December 2006, Washtenaw County Assistant Prosecutor Blaine Longsworth said at the opening of her accused killer's second trial Monday.

As he did during Orange Taylor III's initial trial last fall - which ended with a deadlocked jury - Longsworth portrayed Dickinson's death as every woman's worst nightmare.

Many of the arguments on both sides were nearly identical to those in the first trial, and several witnesses are taking the stand for a second time this week in the high-profile case.

With pictures of the smiling Hastings native displayed on a projector screen, Longsworth described how she awoke to an intruder in the middle of the night. She was dragged to the floor, sexually assaulted, and left suffocated by her pillow, naked from the waist down, Longsworth said.

"What she woke up to, how she takes her last precious breaths, and how she is left to decompose is simply horrific," he said. "This case is about a chilling disregard for life, hard scientific evidence and efforts by the defendant to cover it up."

Assistant Public Defender Laura Graham picked up on Longsworth's "nightmare theme" with her own twist when she made an opening statement Monday. Taylor was represented by a private attorney during his first trial, but requested a public defender when his lawyer withdrew in December.

"This is not a case about every woman's nightmare. This is a case about every citizen's nightmare - being accused of a terrible crime that you didn't commit," Graham said.

Longsworth said evidence in the case will show that Taylor, who also was an EMU student at the time, sneaked in and out of dorms across campus and was savvy enough to conceal his identity from surveillance cameras.

Taylor entered Hill Hall where Dickinson lived at about 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 13, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt that covered his face, Longsworth said. He entered Dickinson's room on the fifth floor, committed the crime, and took Dickinson's bag and car keys before locking the bathroom door to an adjoining room and the dorm door behind him.

Longsworth said the trial also will also focus on two semen stains and several acrylic fibers from the crime scene that link directly to Taylor.

But Graham urged jurors to approach the scientific evidence with caution and pay close attention to testimony about the cause of death. Though she readily admitted Taylor was in Dickinson's room and left DNA, Graham said none of the physical evidence links him to her death.

Graham questioned whether Dickinson was even murdered and, hinting at what's likely to be the crux of their defense, said a pre-existing medical condition may have played a larger factor than investigators acknowledged.

Longsworth said Dickinson was treated for a heart arrhythmia in 2005 but was later cleared by doctors to compete with the university's rowing team.

The opening arguments Monday came after nearly four hours of jury selection that focused on exposure to media coverage of Taylor's first trial and its impact. The jury consists of eight women and six men.

About a dozen supporters, most wearing lapel pins with a dove, sat through the proceedings with Dickinson's parents, Bob and Deb Dickinson. Laura Dickinson, who had hoped to join the Peace Corps, had a dove tattoo on her hip.

Across the aisle in court were Taylor's parents, grandfather and pastors associated with the family. Many wore orange ribbons over their hearts.

Taylor, 21, is charged with open murder and other felonies in the slaying. The trial resumes this morning.